Salvation
by KirolaiSemperFi
Summary: Written for Easier than eating two pies' NCIS challenge. They thought he was dead...But if that was so, then how did Anthony DiNozzo re-enter the lives of Team Gibbs again?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything except for...nope...that was just wishful thinking, I guess.**

**A/N: Please note that none of the street names have been researched. I'm just making them up because I can't really find out the maps of Washington D.C. Thank you!**

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo swerved into the next lane, cutting off a large truck as he did so. The angry trucker stuck his head out the window, cursing aloud at the NCIS agent, but Tony chose to ignore the yells. Instead, he kept his focus on the lightning blue Evo that was trying to shake him off. If only he wasn't using a rental...

This guy just won't quit, he thought to himself as the Evo gained a few more meters away from Tony.

It had been such a coincidence to have run into Victor Trombetta, a long-timer on the NCIS Most-Wanted Wall. Tony had rolled out of bed late, jumped into a five-minute shower, and ran out the door before grabbing anything to eat. His stomach, however, failed to comply to the lack of food, and so, before heading to the Naval Yard, Tony had made a pit stop at his favorite coffee shop. There, he and Trombetta met face to face. That was only...ten minutes ago-

"Crap!" Tony glanced at the clock on his dashboard. 0730. He dug into his pockets for his phone, holding down the number 2 on the dialpad. As the phone began an instant dial, he activated the speakerphone and tossed it onto the vacant front passenger seat beside him.

Gibbs answered after three rings.

"Boss-"

"DiNozzo, where the hell are you?" It wasn't an overly-pissed question, but a common, everyday Gibbs demand.

"You wouldn't believe who I ran into at the coffee shop today." Tony gassed the car, zooming past an elderly lady in her car.

"Say goodbye to your ex-girlfriend and-"

"Victor Trombetta, Boss. I bumped into Victor Trombetta." Tony could hear the unmistakable clash of Gibbs' desk drawer sliding shut, and the curious voices of McGee and Ziva.

"Where are you, Tony?" Gibbs asked hurriedly.

Tony glanced at the nearest street sign as he passed it. "We're heading down Vesper, going towards Patron...He's a pretty good driver, Boss. I can't keep up with him in this traffic."

"You stick with him." The elevator dinged in the background over the phone. "I'll have McGee pinpoint your location on the GPS."

"We can try cutting him off after Patron," Tony suggested. "Try Riverston."  
"That's good work, Tony. We'll meet up with you there."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

It took three minutes for Gibbs, McGee, and Ziva to clear out of the building and get to their car. By then, Gibbs was so anxious that he started the car and nearly drove away before the rest of his team could make it all the way inside.

"I'm tracking down Tony's GPS coordinates now, Boss," McGee announced as he got to work with his laptop.

"He was last on Vesper, heading towards Patron," Gibbs informed as he sped past the base security. "See if he's still there."

"Who is he in pursuit of?" Ziva inquired.

Gibbs cut through an opposing lane of cars, missing the bumpers of at least a dozen of them before swerving back into the right lane. "Tony ran into Victor Trombetta at his coffee shop this morning and has been following him since."

"Trombetta?" Ziva thought for a moment. "Did NCIS not already arrest him?"

"That was his brother, Ziva," McGee corrected. "Louis Trombetta. He was wanted for the murders of Agent Tom Gradburg and Agent Henry Marro."

Ziva nodded. "And Victor is also wanted?"

"He swore to avenge his brother," Gibbs explained. "He's been targetting LEOs and federal agents for three years."

"How many of them were successful?"

"Fifteen."

"Boss?"

"Whaddaya have, McGee?"

McGee blinked several times as he looked at his screen. "Tony's GPS isn't moving. He's in the same spot."

"Is he stuck in traffic?" Gibbs questioned.

"Or he could've lost him," McGee replied.

"Or he could've caught him," Ziva suggested.  
Gibbs turned onto Riverston, continuing down the road until they hit a large collection of gathered vehicles. Doors were opened and drivers were all staring at the same point ahead on the bridge, fingers pointing and looks of awe littering their faces.

"This must be it," Gibbs said as the three of them got out of the car. "NCIS! Move out of the way! Move!"

"Move away!" Someone yelled. "The feds are here!"

The crowd cleared as best they could, allowing Team Gibbs to reach the bridge. At the sight of what they saw, all three special agents felt their hearts drop into their stomachs, shock written all over their faces. In front of them, a section of the side railing was bent outwards, separated by a black Toyota Camry that hung out over the edge, tipping forward towards the river below.

Gibbs was the first to regain control of himself, rushing forward to find his senior field agent and get him out of the car before it possible fell forward. As he did so, the tip of the car leaned down, sending the car to plummet into the waters of the Potomac river, crashing into the cool surface.

"Tony!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't (a contraction of 'do' and 'not') own NCIS.**

Special Agent Gibbs took a slow sip from his morning coffee as the elevator reached the bullpen. Without a word to the two younger men that stood in the far corner of his personal office, he stepped off and headed towards his team section, where he spotted Ziva, McGee, and a third figure, standing in the center of the desks.

"You two better be doing something work-related."

Ziva and McGee turned to greet Gibbs with their usual nods and small smiles.

"We are, Gibbs," Ziva said as she leaned back against her desk. "We were just waiting for you."

Gibbs nodded, brushing past his agents as he fell into his seat behind his own desk. He didn't even acknowledge the third person standing with his agents.

McGee decided to speak up. "Boss," he said, "this is Connor Wilson."

The man, Connor, held out his hand in front of Gibbs. "It's an honor, Sir." When he didn't even get a look from the special agent, he retracted his arm and looked at McGee.

"Boss, Connor is-"

"I know, McGee." Gibbs finished off his coffee and slammed it into the garbage bin. "I know." Without another word, he stood up and left the bullpen, going towards the elevator once more.

As soon as he was gone, Ziva gave Connor a small smile. "Don't mind him, Connor."

"I can already tell that he hates me. What'd I do?"

"It's not you," McGee assured. "That's just who Gibbs is."

"Has he always been that grouchy?"

McGee and Ziva shared a sad look for a second, both returning to their respective desks.

"Not always," McGee replied.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Ducky?" Gibbs called as he strode into Autopsy.

"Hello, Jethro," the old ME greeted without looking up from his desk. The small desk lamp was turned on, brought down low enough to almost touch the reports that were scattered all over the desk. "Not a bad morning, now, is it?"  
Quietly, Gibbs approached Ducky and sat against the end of the desk, careful not to disturb any documents.

"Not today, Duck."

Ducky didn't look up, but continued to read. "But you caught John Chafferau, did you not?"

"We did." Gibbs looked down at his hands, curling them both into loose fists.

Ducky followed his gaze, looking down. "It's been that long, hmm?"

Gibbs nodded. "A whole year, Duck."

"Did you say your sorrows this morning?"

"I visited, if that's what you mean."

"Yes, well, I still have yet to go today. Perhaps I'll take Mr. Palmer and Abby along."

"You can take McGee and Ziva too if you want. They could use the time off for a little bit."

Ducky's eyes turned up to look at his friend. "Jethro, I assure you that he doesn't blame you at all for what happened."

Gibbs shook his head. "I should've been there. I should've gone faster, Ducky...but I didn't. And now, he's-"

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs, that's enough," Ducky slapped his hand against the desk. "You need to learn to stop blaming yourself for Anthony's death."

"He died because I wasn't quick enough, Ducky."

"We don't know that for sure. No body was ever recovered from the river. You know that." Ducky hated to bring up the topic once more. Every time Tony's name was mentioned in a conversation, the topics turned to the events of the morning when Tony died. "He could've already been dead from the crash. You. Are. Not. To. Blame."

"I-" Gibbs was cut off by the sound of his cellphone. "Yeah. Gibbs."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Ziva finished proofreading her final report of the Chafferau case, and eased back into her chair. She glanced over at McGee who was still working on his own report, and then turned to meet Connor's stare as he sat down against the vacant desk in front of her.

"So I've been meaning to ask about something," Connor piped up.  
"By all means, ask away," Ziva said.

"Why is there only three of you? I mean, shouldn't MCRT teams have four agents together?"

Ziva's gaze broke off from Connor, returning to her computer screen. Leave it up to the new guy to ask so many questions that brought back painful memories.

"Is it an even number problem?" Connor pressed. "Did Agent Gibbs not approve of anyone else?"

"I didn't say you'd get an answer," Ziva responded.

"But you just said for me to ask-"

"Gear up!" Gibbs said as he hurried behind his desk to grab his weapon and badge.

"What do we have, Boss?" McGee asked immediately.

"Got four dead bodies in a home in Quantico," Gibbs said as he walked past Connor. It was at that moment that he decided to actually look at the young man. Connor had short, spiky-almost, brown hair, a nice suit on, and a goofy grin on his face as he met eye contact with Gibbs. The smile showed a lot of his pearly-white teeth much like...

"Are we bringing the rookie along?"

Gibbs shook his head and continued towards the elevator.

"Four bodies?" Ziva shook her head, clearly not amused.

"Bloodbath."

"Exactly what I was thinking, McGee."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Oh wow," McGee exclaimed as he stepped into the living room of the Quantico household. Four bodies were spread out across the room. One lay atop the now-bloodied sofa, the wooden floor with more blood pooled there, the broken coffee table, and the last one by the window.

"This isn't your first bloodbath, McGee," Ziva reminded.

"I know, but it doesn't get any easier for me. I don't know about you."  
"It's not easy for me either," Ziva said as she took a photo of the overall scene. "But it does help that we catch the killers in the end, does it not?"

McGee sighed as he continued to sketch on his notepad. "We don't always catch our guy."

"We won't if you two keep on talking," Gibbs said as he walked into the living room. "Have we ID'd any of our dead bodies?"

McGee took out his portable fingerprint scanner and checked the screen. All four prints were still running. "Not yet done, Boss."

"Then make it done." Gibbs turned to Ziva. "Ziva?"

"Almost done with the pictures, Gibbs." She moved closer to bring the camera preview screen closer to Gibbs. "Twelve shots total. Three in each body. Hard to tell which ones were the fatal ones."

"For you maybe, Agent David," Ducky praised as he and Jimmy rolled in the the gurney, "but you can just leave that up to me to find out." He frowned as he saw the multiple bodies. "Oh dear, Mr. Palmer, I think we need more gurneys."

"We're almost finished here, Duck," Gibbs said, allowing Ziva to leave the room and search the rest of the place for anything out of place. "Can you find me the time of death for each one?"

"You'll need to give me a moment, Jethro." Ducky pulled out a liver probe from his medical bag, walked over to the nearest body, and stuck it into the liver.

"Neighbors say they heard gunshots around midnight."

Ducky nodded. "Hold on a second. Isn't there another one of you that's supposed to be here."

Gibbs sighed. "Not today, I don't think."

"Gibbs didn't want him to come," McGee admitted, earning himself a glare from Gibbs. "Sorry, Boss."

"Gibbs," Ziva came back into the living room with a single glock in her hands. "Found this stashed away in the bedroom. There's blood on the trigger."

"Our shooter might've been wounded if we're lucky," Gibbs said as he grabbed an evidence bag out and took the glock away from Ziva. "Good work."

A beeping sound came from McGee's fingerprint scanner, confirming the IDs of the dead bodies. McGee took a look at the screen.

"Okay," he pointed at the one lying on the ground. "That's Hector Velasco. And then that one on the sofa is Mateo Gomez. The sofa guy is Nico Federro, and the last one is-" He cut off, shock etching at his young face as he exhaled a shaky breath.

"Is who, McGee?"

McGee looked up at each of his team mates before looking at Gibbs. "Boss, that's Victor Trombetta." 


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't (a contraction of 'do' and 'not') own NCIS.**

Connor Wilson sat up as soon as he saw Gibbs' voice coming from the elevator. He took his feet down from the desktop, pushed himself away from the desk, and stood up with a pleasant smile on his face.

"Hey guys, how was the-"  
"McGee," Gibbs interrupted. "I want you to pull up whatever you can find on the guys found with Trombetta. I want house addresses too."

"On it, Boss." McGee scurried behind his desk and opened up the search database.

"Ziva, I want the connection between the four of them. Were they associates, enemies, family-you have a half hour."

Ziva nodded and gave Connor a quick wave before getting to work.

Connor sighed continued to stand where he was, looking straight at the lead agent who was doing more than avoiding him. Gibbs wasn't even bothering to look at him, and he wanted to know why. What was it that he had done?

Connor cleared his throat, but to no avail. He cleared it again.

"It that all you're gonna do here, Agent Wilson?" Gibbs said without looking up, instead keeping his eyes on his own computer screen.

Connor stuttered. "Uh, well, I-"

"Go check with Dr. Mallard in autopsy. Go."

Connor nodded, straightened his tie, and almost ran to the elevator, pleased that he and Gibbs had shared their first actual conversation...sort of.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Abby Sciuto yawned as she sulked into her lab, finding three bins of newly-acquired evidence that required her immediate attention. Ziva must've been talking about those when she said that Gibbs "wanted everything on the stuff in three hours." She sighed and shook her head. Gibbs still didn't completely understand the meaning of not being able to rush science.

"Time to wake up, babies!" She clapped her hands and looked around at the empty room. "Oh come on," she said after a second of silence. "Just because I'm just as sleepy as you, doesn't mean that you can just sit there and not do any work, because then you'd all be fired."

"Uh, Abby?" Jimmy walked into the lab, carrying a small tray of samples. "Who're you talking to?" The question was his most frequently asked whenever visiting the lab from autopsy, yet he couldn't help but ask every time he came.

"My babies, Jimmy!" Abby replied. "They're being stubborn."

Jimmy smiled. "Perhaps you should try giving them a boost to get going?"

Abby shook her head. "I can't keep on spoon feeding them to do something. They have to do it on their own."

Jimmy took that into consideration. "Oh, I see." He set down the tray onto the table and looked at her. "So, why the stubborn attitudes today? Is it too early?"

"Probably." Abby looked down at her new black boots, rubbing her toes in a little circle on the ground.

Jimmy leveled eyes with her. "Probably? Or probably because...of today?"

Slowly, Abby nodded. "I went to see him this morning before coming in. He was so lonely, Jimmy."

Jimmy tried to smile. "Well, if it makes you feel any better-"

"Nothing can make me feel better right now, Jimmy!" Abby cut him off. "I can't believe it's been this long! I mean, we never even caught Trombetta and now-"

Jimmy held up his hands between them. "Wait, you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"The case, Abby." Jimmy grabbed a jar of samples and held it up to her. "We found Trombetta today. He's dead."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Okay," McGee stepped forward, pointing to the documents on the bullpen plasma. "First is Hector Velasco." He waited for his team to stand beside him. "Velasco was born in Chicago, Illinois-"

"As was Mateo Gomez and Nico Federro," Ziva cut in. "All grew up together in the same residential apartment building, Gibbs."

McGee nodded in confirmation. "That's what I found out too." He glanced over at his boss. "That's the connection."

"Only Trombetta wasn't from Chicago," Ziva informed. "He was originally from Georgetown. So there's no direct relationship between Trombetta and the other three men. However, there is between him and Hector Velasco."

Gibbs took note of what was being told to him. "Tell me more about Velasco."

"Velasco was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois before moving here to Georgetown," McGee began. "He was arrested twice for drug-related activities and a gang activity."

"What gang did he roll with?"

McGee scanned the arrest reports on the screen. "Las Muertas."

"The dead," Ziva translated.

"Las Muertas...?" Gibbs racked his brains. "That was the gang led by Louis Trombetta before he died."

"Hey, Boss, there's an address listed under Velasco," McGee said. "You want us to check it out?"

Gibbs looked directly at his agent. "Let's all go. C'mon."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

His eyes squinted against the bright stream of sunlight that beamed in through the bedroom window. His shoulder hurt like hell, but at least he was still alive. After that last event, it was a miracle he had made it out.

"You're awake," Johnny was quick to his feet, holding out a glass of water up to his lips. "Boss says you should drink before you pass out again. He was afraid you were dead, you know."

Licking his dry lips, he took a sip of the icy cold water, letting it slide down his parched throat. "Thanks."

Johnny placed the glass on the bedside table, not knowing what to do. Cautiously, he took a look at the man's bloodied shoulder, poking around at the bandages and eliciting low moans from the injured man.

"It'll heal in no time. You're safe for now, Tony, but I don't know how much longer you have left before they come back to finish the job."

His breathing becoming more ragged by the second, Tony DiNozzo nodded slowly, trying to whisper something before succumbing to black and gray. "Gi-"


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everybody, I apologize for the huge delay in posting a new chapter. I just recently received news that a close friend passed away in Afghanistan. I've been busy trying to help out my friend's family and all. I will post soon though. I promise.

Thanks for understanding.


End file.
